Weldun

Well, I can now add drug smuggling to the list. Specifically, Nacro-submarines and Narco-tanks. Every time I think that I might be getting a little ridiculous with the gangs in my game (one of which is heavily influenced by the '80s classic, The Last Dragon), I find that the real world has trumped me.

I think the boat is cared on the back of the RV like it was on a flatbed truck

.

Yeah, that's the impression that I'm getting as well. It would have been nice if they have included an image of the road unit without the boat.

I gave up at just the preliminary design considerations. Duplication? Carried Vehicle? I'm working on a whole bunch of other vehicles so I might come back to this later, but I figured I'd throw this one out and see what other people come up with. (I know, I know. Combiners in Hero. Rarely the most elegant build, mechanically.)

Here's the link: http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2010/05/2-in-1-pleasure-boat-and-rv-vehicle.html

...Huh. I guess it's just that we're a lot more tolerant of the almonds version.

Not all of us.

I've often wondered if I'm on some federal watch list based on internet searches I've done for Champions adventures.  Quick examples:  nuclear weapons, missiles, plus the various Google Maps views I've done of prisons, military installations, etc.

Oh, my. I've looked at google maps of the Umatilla Chemical Disposal Facility, searched online for maps of various military bases, their ready statuses and even for photos of various buildings and interiors. All for my Fallout: Washington game.

Riiiiiight.  That's why you're looking that up.  For your game.

 

Honestly, I was. I'm not going to claim that I didn't already have an idea of WHERE to search, though.

Doesn't stacking Charges lead to a Burnout Roll?

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary wonders what charging stacks leads to

True. Maybe this could just be a different way of reflecting some form overcharge or nitro system? Personally, I feel that the burnout roll has a bit of unnecessary overkill given that unless you are applying them to a 5 active point or less power (before charges), you're using up a fair amount of potential active points for a +5AP boost. Really, it's just a way for charge based powers to push, when you get down to it. But with this built, I'm planning on applying a -1 to all combat driving checks for every extra charge you are using (meaning -4 at max boost) to reflect that most vehicle handling characteristics decline rather sharply when go past optimal.

As a part of my current Champions campaign, I've populated the city (and world) with genetically altered animals. Most are anthropomorphic and are in an economically depressed situation due to the tenuous legal standing that they have. What can I say except that I grew up reading Eastman and Laird, okay?

But one of my PCs is a bouncer at a strip club. This strikes me as a fun story point (although as it's not a DNPC, they're not likely to ever be in any real danger) and I decided to populate it a bit. That's where the strange research comes in. I have found myself, in the interests of painting coherent image for my game, searching for images of furry strippers and waitresses. Let me just say that again. I have found myself searching for images of furry strippers and waitresses, for my Champions game.

I'm not complaining, you understand, but I had that moment of "I'm really doing this." So, what strange research have some of you found yourselves doing as a result of GMing or playing in a Champions game?

So, messing around with converting some vehicles into Hero 5E (I prefer it, okay?) I came up to a problem. Many games list a range rather than an operating time for their vehicles. Okay, no problem right? Well, yes and no. See, the motorcycle that I was working on would have been left with just 1 hour of fuel. Now, you could use GM handwavium and say that vehicles can use only part of a power, but I wanted to see if I could use the mechanics as they stood to work this out. And I came up with this construct.

Two-Wheeled Ground Vehicle:  Ground Movement +15" (21" total), x4 Noncombat, 5 Boostable Continuing Fuel Charges lasting 1 Hour each (+1/4) (47 Active Points); OAF Bulky (Standard Tires; -1 1/2), Only On Appropriate Terrain (-1/4)

Charges work exactly the same in 6E, so those of you not familiar with the previous edition should still be able to follow along. Interestingly, on the vehicle that I was working on, this nearly doubled it's actual range (which for the system I was converting from, could be done by not taking the vehicle above half speed) so long as you were only using 1 charge at a time. A simple mechanical way of being able to trade between fuel efficiency and performance. Now, for a vehicle where the charges are measured in hours, you could probably go the hand-wave route but it opens ideas, no?

Note: Before anyone decides to criticize the IDEA behind the construct, I want this level of fidelity in some games. You might not and that's just bully for you, alright? But sometimes you want this level of detail.

Something tells me that, before this campaign comes to an end, this particular team will become known as the group

that gave Doctor Destroyer Lom's Syndrome...

 

 

Major Tom 2009

Okay, throw me a bone here? Because the only reference I could find was for LOM syndrome and I'm having trouble picturing Doctor Destroyer as a songwriter.

Braddoc (after we've travelled through the gate to the wrong address and have followed a natural cavern up into an area of worked stone): Worked stone means the possibility of traps.

 

Nymera: I was hoping you'd say "possibility of friends".

 

Braddoc: I'm not that optimistic.  I've met us.

That sounds like most groups of PCs that I know.

Return to Edge City : Recruiting The Team

Edge City's newest superheroes, getting together a wildly optimistic plan to deal with the conurbation's many problems.

 

 

Flux: Techneurge/Cybermage

Hardlight: Industrialist, Philanthropist, Secret superhero.

Hero Shrew: Anthropomorphic Anger Ball "Shake vigorously, point towards enemy"

Fireflash: Flying Energy Projector, who made an unfortunate first public appearance when she escaped from the illegal medical experiments that created her powers. "One of the reporters decided they needed to work 'flash' into her name somehow."

 

Hero Shrew OoC: I'm detecting a theme here - Flux, Hardlight, Fireflash.... And then there's Hero Shrew.

 

GM: One of my previous characters would have conference calls during superhero fights. 'So Gerry, what I think we need to do in the third quarter is - just a minute - I TOLD YOU TO STAY DOWN - anyway, the third quarter.'

 

Hardlight's player: You guys are going to hate me but it will be fun later - I took 'Weirdness Magnet'.

Flux's player: I can see it now. 'And who do we blame for all this? This guy.'

 

GM: Hardlight is barely harder to hit than the hex he's standing in. He mostly relies on hitting things at range - but he's crap at that too.

 

Hardlight attempts to recruit a team.

 

GM: So how do you know each other?

Hardlight OoC: I hired them?

Fireflash OoC: At my age?

Hero Shrew OoC: Intern then.

Fireflash OoC: Probably not - I had a bad experience with my last internship.

GM: That's how she got her powers.

 

Hero Shrew OoC: You needed a team for a particular job? 'Now who do I know in Edge City? There's that one who was on the news the other day - the one with the perky nipples'

Flux's player: 'I like her.' 'She's under age.' 'Er, I don't LIKE like her, I like her spunk..... Bad choice of words.' That would be an interesting Disad.

GM: Uncontrollable Double Entendre.

 

Sounds like the notorious Smut Field. How would you stat THAT out in Hero?

 

On top of all the corporate and supergang shenanigans, there's Edge City's large population of engineered animals, many of whom have there own superhuman abilities. Never has the term 'rats with capes' been more appropriate.

 

GM: Hero Shrew works as a bouncer at a titty bar in the Zoo.

Hero Shrew: And I always need money because of all the criminal damage cases.

GM: All kind of girls at the bar - squirrel girls, gazelle girls

Hero Shrew: Cat girls.

GM: The Zoo is paradise for furries.

Flux's player: Am I playing Black Crusade again by mistake?

Hero Shrew: For the really adventurous there's hyena girls.

 

GM: There's a photo and note next to the door. "This bouncer can clean lift 25 tonnes" And the photo is Hero Shrew smiling.

Fireflash's player: Which with shrews is SCARY.

 

GM: Hardlight's civilian ID is Gareth Lowell, a philanthropist millionaire who actually hires Moreaus. And you've never heard of him.

Hero Shrew: *shrug* Outside my usual social circles.

Hardlight OoC: You wondered why I was being followed by paparazzi.

Flux OoC: Who photographed you going into a titty bar.

GM: A FURRY titty bar. Currently trending #LowellTitFur.

 

Hero Shrew gets one of the girls to read the card Gareth Lowell / Hardlight left for him. It takes a few attempts for the number $30,000 to sink in.

 

Hero Shrew: Hey! I can get the door fixed!

Bunni: You broke the door again? I keep telling you, you should get a curtain.

Flux: I keep expecting him to go home to food pellets and an exercise wheel.

 

Hardlight's attempts to recruit Flux don't go quite so smoothly, especially after Flux sees what is trending on Twitter.

 

GM: Flux, you think you're being propositioned for a swinger's party.

Flux: I get spam that's more competent than this.

Hardlight: It's my first time out.

GM, Fireflash: *cackling*

Flux: Let's start again - You're a superhero and you want extra muscle for a job? Or is this 'Can I get your number, baby?'

 

GM: I'm going to make it easy for you - come up with a team name, make a Facebook group, and Invite Fireflash to join it.

Fireflash: I'm an underage teenage girl and I'm being asked to join a group by someone named HARDlight?

GM: I don't even need to steer this into the gutter.

Fireflash: Blocked.

 

Fireflash: Am I the first one you've tried to recruit?

Hardlight: No, you're the third.

Fireflash: And the first two turned you down?

Hardlight: No, actually.

Fireflash: Well, you must be doing something right.

Hardlight: Actually, I haven't heard back from the first guy yet...

Hero Shrew OoC: 'But he didn't throw me out of the titty bar'.

 

Bunni: I'll help you get there, Scooter.

Hero Shrew: Thanks, Bunni, I dunno what I'd do without ya.

Bunni: Break everything?

Hero Shrew: Yeah, probably.

 

Fireflash: *on phone* Hey Nicki, I won't be able to make the game tonight. Sorry. Can you play my cleric for me?

 

Fireflash's costume is on the skimpy side - her enhanced metabolism runs at a dangerously high temperature.

 

Flux: She doesn't even have a boob window.

Hardlight: She doesn't need them - she's wearing a bikini.

 

Hero Shrew's Hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold friend makes sure he gets to the meeting on time.

 

GM: There's a bunny girl waiting at the meeting place. Long ears, fluffy tail, the whole deal.

Flux: Good feelings.

GM: And then there's the ball of fur, muscle, and teeth next to her.

Flux: Good feelings all gone.

 

Bunni: Now, Scooter, remember, this is LowellTech. Don't forget to give them the card.

Hero Shrew: Oh yeah. *starts patting pockets* Uh...

Bunni: *sigh* I've got it, remember? *pulls card from cleavage*

Hero Shrew: Oh, right, I remember now.

Bunni: And remember what I said about getting home. Stick to the main roads. If you go into any alleyways you'll have to hurt someone again.

Hero Shrew: Yeah, that happens a lot, dunnit? See ya tomorrow Bunni.

Bunni: *kisses the shrew's cheek*

 

Hardlight realises he's arranged for everybody to arrive at the same time.

 

Hardlight: I have made a boo-boo. Quick everybody, get inside.

Fireflash: Hey! Watch it with the hands!

Flux: This guy is a social media disaster. 'Edge City Philanthropist Seen With Teenager, Manimal, and ... Cameraman?'

 

Hardlight is also unaware that Flux and Fireflash have already figured out his secret identity. This bodes ill for future supervillain revenge schemes. Ill for Hardlight - it bodes great for any villain with half a brain.

 

Fireflash: Who are you?

Flux: Flux. Don't you read the Facebook group?

Fireflash: No - I blocked him after I though he was a creep.

Flux: Nah, he was like that with me too. Well, he MIGHT be a grabber, he's rich.

 

Hardlight changes back into his civilian garb and heads out front to meet Hero Shrew.

 

Hardlight/Gareth Lowell: Mr Shrew, good to see you, mate! Er... Mate?

GM: Aaaaaand three for three. Apparently he wants to breed with you.

Moreau Employee: He means 'Friend'

 

Hardlight creates a few hologram sofas for his team to sit on.

 

Hardlight: So let's get into it.

Fireflash: Into what? Because I don't want any orgies.

Hardlight: Superheroics! Not orgies! Truth, Justice, and the American goddamned Way!

Hero Shrew: Will this count as community service?

 

Hardlight: I'm prepared to pay you all a salary.

Fireflash: I can't do weekdays - I'm not willing to give up school.

Flux: It'll be like a weekend knitting club.

 

Fireflash: So what do you do?

Hero Shrew: Er... bounce stuff? Demolish buildings?

Fireflash: So you're big and strong? Well, small and strong.

Hero Shrew: Yeah.

Fireflash: And you?

Flux: Florist.

 

Fireflash: What about you? That suit do anything?

Hardlight: You're sitting on what I can do.... Oh god.

Flux: *slow clap*

GM: New Rule - Hardlight is never allowed to talk to the press.

Flux: Also, Hero Shrew is not flammable but smells bad when wet.

 

Hardlight does not, in fact, have a job in mind right now.

 

Hardlight: ... I just wanted to set up the knitting club.

Flux: I WILL re-edit your Facebook page.

GM: Not difficult.

Flux: The threat is real.

Fireflash: If you are up to something that makes my friends think I'm in a knitting club I will re-edit your face.

 

But Flux IS aware of something suspicious. Somebody has been testing security alarms and response times over in the light industrial suburb of Ditko. Flux weaves a spell that makes us invisible to cameras, so we can stake the suburb out.

 

Flux: Don't try to take any selfies.

 

Flux is right - the heist is being planned by the Six Teens, one of Edge City's more notorious supervillain groups. Titania, Lash, Iron Claw, Black Warlock, Viper Girl and Ghost Shadow.

 

GM: But you can only see 5 of them. 'I can't see the ninja - oh crap'.

 

Lash is carrying the Iron Claw in one of her energy tendrils, and walking on another four.

 

Hardlight: Is he injured?

GM: No - it's just faster this way.

 

They walk up to a storage warehouse and Iron Claw starts tearing off a wall.

 

Fireflash: These are the guys we're here to stop, right?

Flux: No, they're Girl Scouts delivering cookies.

 

Hero Shrew starts looking around for things to use as blunt instruments.

 

GM: There's plenty of options - it's an industrial estate.

Hero Shrew: Dumpsters, forklifts...

 

Hardlight: Stop, in the name of Justice!

Lash: *has already turned to catch the dumpster Hero Shrew has already thrown*

Hardlight: .... Huh.

Fireflash: Seriously? Hardlight, do you have any idea of the concept of a surprise attack?

GM: There's a reason you can only see five of them

Hero Shrew: Crap. The Ninja is doing Overwatch for them.

Flux: Ninja? What Ninja? I can't see any ninjas.

Hero Shrew OoC: Worse, there's only one Ninja - we're screwed.

GM: True - Ninjitsu has been conserved.

Lash: Seriously? A Dumpster?

Titania: Wow. Well then. This is a thing.

 

Any bookie would give our team poor odds in the fight - the Six Teens badly outclass us. But we get very lucky - Fireflash blasts them with a dazzling attack, which actually gets them all, and we discover Lash has 360 vision and no flash defence.

 

Flux: We have discovered a weakness >

Lash: See? This is why I keep saying we need goggles.

 

Ghost Shadow: Ah, two can play at that game. *blinds Fireflash with Shadow Powder*

Fireflash: Argh, Jesus, that burns! Asshole!

 

Their leader, Titania, runs through a wall to set up some later move out of our sight.

 

Hardlight: Hammer of JUSTICE!!!!!

Hero Shrew OoC: You don't have to announce your attacks, you know.

Hardlight: Yes I do.

GM: He took the Disad

 

Hardlight manages to hit himself with his own hologrammic Hammer of Justice. And Hero Shrew's gets the dumpster back in the face.

 

GM: *sings* Return, to Sender.

 

Hardlight: ARMOUR-PIERCING BITCH SLAP!

Flux: ....

Hardlight: Yes, I call it that.

Flux: Suddenly I wish the concealment spell was still up.

Fireflash: We are going to have words later.

 

GM: Viper Girl is up, and she's not happy. That hurt.

Hero Shrew OoC: And somebody just yelled BITCH SLAP.

GM: And that too.

 

Iron Claw, still dazzled, finally tears his way through the solid metal slab reinforcing the inner wall of the 'storage warehouse'.

 

Iron Claw: Finally!... Am I through yet?

 

Lash lashes away, and Titania re-emerges to lay down her own hurt, orders her team to cover Iron Claw's entrance into the 'warehouse', and gets an enraged Shrew wielding a street-sign in the face.

 

Hero Shrew: CAPTAIN CAAAAAAAAVVVVEMAAAAN!!!!!!

 

Lash takes a particular interest in attacking Hardlight.

 

Lash: Sorry, What *LASH* Did *LASH* You *LASH* Call *LASH* Me?

Fireflash: And he deserves it.

 

Titania's tactical analysis is spot-on. Flux, for example, has no obvious powers, and she's cautious enough to avoid hand-to-hand with an unknown.

 

Titania: The skinny ones tend to be tricky *punches the ground so hard that the rebounding turf slaps Flux three stories into the air*

 

And then Black Warlock mind-controls Hero Shrew into attacking the rest of the knitting circle.

 

Titania: Hi there. You'd better stay down. *punches Hardlight the rest of the way into unconsciousness*

GM: And now that she's the only one visible, Fireflash knows that the Anger Ball is coming for her.

Fireflash: *runs away*

Titania: Smart girl.

 

Viper Girl: I'm bored. *fires energy beams at Flux's crotch and singes off his short-and-curlies*

GM: I think that counts as a Presence Attack.

 

Titania: *grabs Flux by a leg, and flings him a few blocks* Fetch. *Hero Shrew heads off after Flux, who barely avoids the shrews's attack*

Flux: I think the screaming and flailing helped.

 

Titania: We're here to work, not play.

Black Warlock: She's got a point, sweetie. I'll steal you something nice later.

 

The Six Teens teleport out with whatever they were after, and we at least learn that the 'warehouse' was full of InfoComp server stacks. InfoComp specialise in data-mining and info-brokering. This is probably bad, but at least we learned how focused and co-ordinated the Six Teens are, and suspect they were hired for the job.

 

Hero Shrew OoC: And we've learned that Hardlight's biggest power is putting his foot in his own mouth.

 

I have to admit, I had a loooot of fun running this.

The audiobook of "Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain."

Rubberband Man - Yello

Well, I haven't been keeping up with Digna's escapades, misadventures and misdemeanours. Jrska, OTOH, I remember with vivid clarity.

And a certain degree of terror.

 

Your hypothesis about the Porn Singularity seems to sound science, based on current physics models.

Well, Digna now has a total 10 Mechadendrites, so I'll have to see what I can come up with.

For Weldun, any Jo Stafford on that mix?

Surprisingly, no. I must rectify this. And I'm glad that my retro-kick proved somewhat infectious.

But currently, Twisted Sister Frontman Dee Snider rockin' out this rendition of Mack The Knife.

Mister Five by Five - The Andrew Sisters

This is from my Fallout: Washington collection (songs I collected for mood-setting in my Fallout PnP)

Yeah, I'm still on a retro-kick.

One exchange from my last Earthdawn session stuck in my memory.

Windling Shaman is laying on the head of the Human Cavalryman's horse, looking up at the clouds.

WS: ...and that one looks like a birdie, and that one looks like a troll, and that one looks like a bunny rabbit...

HC: *Looking up* Which one looks like a bunny rabbit?

WS: *Turns and give the Human a "are-you-stupid" look* ...the bunny rabbit shaped one.

Careless Whisper (Cover) - Scott Bradley's Postmodern Jukebox (Feat. Dave Koz)

I'm in one of my retro-futurism moods.

Yes, would have been nice if the druid had added "and a dragon" to the warning sign.

But then Salazar wouldn't have his gift for Lady Sally.

Credit for that line actually goes to someone here. I forget who, but their signature has an almost identical statement

---Weldun, a.k.a. Salazar, HUMAN Rogue.

Ewwwwwwww...only a Drhoz post could be so disturbingly hilarious ( ).

 

 

Major Tom 2009

Why, thank you.

(is Digna's player)

We drive past the estate and drop off our infiltration drone.

 

GM: I really hope Shitkicker enjoys clinging to the underside of moving vehicles.

Oracle: No. Oh wait, yes he does - I programmed him with a virtual personality.

Poe: Why are we getting excited squealing over the TacNet?

Shitkicker: Wheeeeee! Bebo!

Actually, it's "Peebo!"

Digna - Heretek who still passes as an investigator for the Adeptus Mechanicus

I am finding fun in seeing how long she can keep her position in the Prefecture Magisterium. Although it does beg the question as to what happens to her talent "Peer (Adeptus Mechanicus)" if her heresy is revealed?

"Dead is dead. Parts is parts. Dead guy is parts." - Ripperjack